The Attention Economy Is a Lie
On why chasing eyeballs is a distraction, and what to measure instead.
For years, marketers have been told the same thing: more reach = more growth.
(Grow or die! Arrrgh). Get more impressions. More followers. More views. More more moreeeee.
Sorry, but attention alone doesn’t build a brand. If your “awareness” doesn’t translate into memory, trust, recall, emotions, preference, advocacy (you get the point), you’re renting attention that disappears the second you stop paying for it. This is another reason why paid ads are a TACTIC and not a strategy, because if you’re running ads and aren’t building loyalty, your brand disappears with your ad spend. Tis true.
What Attention Actually Means
Attention is just step one. What matters is what people do with said attention.
There are three layers of value I implore you to care about more than raw reach:
Recognition: Do people immediately connect your message back to you, or could it have been anyone?
Recall: When they hit the moment of need, will they think of you first?
Relevance: Does your brand show up in a way that feels aligned with their world, not just your campaign?
These tend to be indicators of how you’re impacting people’s brains rather than just getting in front of them. It sounds messed up but marketing is intended to change the way people think and feel. Are you actually doing that? How do you know?
Why Brands Keep Falling for It
If we’re smart, have big data, and can understand things like intent and preference, why do brands keep falling for the eyeballs?
Vanity pressure: Leadership loves big numbers. Impressions and follower counts are easy wins for a slide deck.
Short-term ROI obsession: Performance metrics give a quick dopamine hit, even when they don’t correlate with long-term brand growth.
Platform logic: Social platforms optimize for time-on-site, not your brand equity. Their incentives aren’t yours.
What to Measure Instead
Raw reach tells you nothing about whether your brand is actually landing. You need metrics that track memory and meaning, not just exposure. These are the signals that show whether attention is compounding into trust and preference, or slipping through your fingers the moment they resume the doomscrolling.
Stop asking “How many people saw it?” and start asking:
Who remembered it? (aided/unaided brand recall surveys, brand lift studies)
Who engaged with intent? (shares, saves, DMs > likes)
Who moved down the funnel? (branded search, direct traffic, category preference)
Who came back? (repeat visitors, retention, organic mentions)
Examples in Action
Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” shifted brand perception by tying the campaign directly to increases in trust and consideration among women globally.
Airbnb’s “Made Possible by Hosts” refocused the brand on hosts rather than the platform. The campaign tracked brand preference and booking intent (not just impressions) and helped reset trust after a rocky pandemic.
Always’ “Like a Girl” turned a cultural insight into long-term brand equity, showing sustained lifts in brand relevance and loyalty beyond the campaign cycle.
None of these brands rely on being everywhere, all the time. They rely on being unforgettable where it counts.
TL;DR
Chasing attention is a trap. Building memory, trust, and preference is the strategy. Learn how to measure retention, recall, preference, sentiment, and other emotional signals over impressions.
Coming Up Next
Loss Aversion in Marketing: Why Fear Works (Carefully)
We’ll dig into one of the strongest psychological biases and how to use it without being manipulative.
What to Know This Week
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Fast Fashion Faces a Harsh Reality Check. Once-booming brands like Asos and Boohoo are dramatically shrinking post-COVID, weighed down by inventory surpluses and weak Gen Z buying power—signals of a seismic shift in how young consumers are choosing (or skipping) fast fashion.
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HubSpot Launches AI Playbook Centered on Trust. At Inbound 2025, HubSpot unveiled "The Loop"—a data-driven AI marketing framework (Express, Tailor, Amplify, Evolve) focused on delivering authentic content and building trust, not just chasing clicks.
Dabur Brands Through Nationalism. As U.S.–India trade tensions rise, Indian consumer brand Dabur launched a nationalist ad campaign urging consumers to choose "Swadeshi" toothpaste over U.S. competitors—merging patriotism with marketing in a charged geopolitical climate.
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